'Just a lot of luck'

"God has been very merciful." These were the first words that Rangpur Riders owner Mustafa Rafiqul Islam uttered after coming out of players' auction programme.

A man of few words, Mustafa's statements to the media might have been short and concise. However, his expressions throughout the auction and in the post-auction press conference easily conveyed just how delighted he was with his team.

And why shouldn't he be? Not only did he get the opportunity to buy the first player of the auction, but he also got the chance to pick the first icon player of the competition; and he surely utilised his luck.

His first buy was Soumya Sarkar, arguably the most sought-after Bangladeshi batsman this year. And amongst the icon players, he picked the most obvious choice, roping in Shakib Al Hasan.

With the BPL auctions following the player-by-choice method, luck was always going to play a factor in the formation of teams.

The players were divided into groups and each of those groups were assigned a fixed value. The owners of the franchises had to take part in a number of lotteries in order to fix the buying sequence. So after every two rounds, the owners had to collect chits which had numbers ranging from one to six. The franchisee that collected the number one would make the first call and so on.

Rangpur's Mustafa receved the number '1' on four occasions, two of which were during the first two rounds of bidding.

While the Sylhet Superstars also drew four 1s, they did so towards the end of the auction and by then a majority of the popular players were already bought.

"I am not just satisfied, but I am very excited with my team. We wanted Shakib and we got him. That's just a lot of luck," smiled Mustafa.